77-Year-Old Runner’s VO2 Max Stuns Scientists, Offering Practical Workout Clues for Thai Readers
Jeannie Rice’s VO2 max reading—47.8 ml/kg/min at the age of 77—has stunned scientists and sparked renewed interest in how aging athletes sustain top endurance performance. The landmark finding comes from a London-area lab study conducted after a marathon, and it places Rice’s cardiovascular fitness in the same elite league as much younger world-class runners. Rice herself insists she’s “just a normal, average person,” but the data suggest that long-term, high-volume running may be a powerful factor in maintaining aerobic capacity well into the late seventies. Importantly, the researchers emphasize that Rice’s outcome seems driven primarily by a remarkably high VO2 max rather than standout running economy at submaximal speeds. This distinction matters for anyone who wonders whether age will inevitably erode endurance performance.